


The Box

by Donatello7



Series: The Day the Music Died [8]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Dark, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Offscreen death of OC, Yondu needs a hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-09
Updated: 2015-03-09
Packaged: 2018-03-17 04:07:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3514763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Donatello7/pseuds/Donatello7
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When twelve year old Kraglin hides inside a box, no one expects Yondu's reaction...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Box

**Author's Note:**

> I am really worried that my subconscious came up with this. 
> 
> Be warned, really dark (of the ‘actually dying while buried alive’ variety ) things ahead.

 

“Whose idea was it to teach that brat how to play?” Horuz shouts as he marches onto the bridge.

“Got you too did he?” Nari says without looking up from her console.

Yondu crosses his arms. “What’s this?”

“Oh, little Kraglin’s new game.” Nari turns to the Captain. “He’s hidden himself in that big old storage box on deck 2 and keeps jumping out yelling behind crewmembers as they walk by.”

“Nearly gave me a damned heart attack.” Horuz says, still clearly angry as he deposits himself in his chair on the bridge. “He’ll be lucky if he doesn’t end today dead with a phaser blast from pulling shit like that. We’ve got more than one jumpy person in this ship.”

“Doubt it.” Nari shrugs while turning to Horuz. “He’s small and scrawny, and none of the jumpy ones can aim for sweets. How does that work? He eats like a...Captain?”

Yondu has quietly left the bridge without anyone noticing.

 

* * *

 

Kraglin quietly giggles as he hears the footsteps, and crouches inside the box, ready to strike. He barely has time to gasp as the lid is opened for him, and he is pulled out of the box by his own clothing.

“What the HELL are you thinking?” Yondu shouts in his face before manhandling him to the other side of the corridor, and holding him against the bulkhead by his jacket with enough strength to hold the child a couple of inches above the floor. “Who knew you were in there? NOBODY. What if we’d locked the box. You’re in there TRAPPED. Do WE know where the LOOK? NO!”

“I was just…” Kraglin’s eyes are focused on the floor in panic.

“You were just being an IDIOT!” Yondu lets go.

Not expecting to suddenly make contact with the ground, Kraglin collapses onto his side, arms wrapped protectively around his head and torso as he looks up at Yondu in terror.

It’s enough to bring the Centaurian out of his blue mist.

“Captain!” Horuz is stood at the end of the corridor, flanked by Nari and Klo, the latter of whom runs forward. He pushes Yondu away, without a single thought as to the consequences, so that he can kneel beside the child on the floor and pick him up. Through ease of practice, the young Xandarian maneuvers himself to sit on the Vanir’s shoulders, face buried in his arms against Klo’s scalp.

“That’s right. You know you’re always safe up there, don’t you?” Klo says with a jovial tone that is the complete opposite of the look he throws Yondu before straightening his stance and taking the sobbing child away. “Let’s go play with the targeting computer. It needs recalibrating again. You remember helping me with that before…” His voice fades as he continues down the corridor.

Horuz and Nari watch the Vanir leave, and then turn back to their Captain.

Yondu quietly growls at himself, and then walks away.

 

* * *

 

Yondu sits at the table in his quarters, angry at himself, angry at Kraglin, angry at the world. Angry at the fucking storage box on deck 2.

He slams his fist on the table, and watches the surface vibrate.

He doesn’t realise that he has left the door open until Horuz appears inside of it. “What the HELL was that back there, Yondu?” He shouts, and Yondu is pretty sure that it makes the hull of the ship shake. “I’ve seen you do some questionable stuff in your time, but beating up on a KID?”

“I didn’t touch him.”

“Well it looks like Klo’s going to be walking around with TWO heads for the next couple of days, so you did something?”

“He shouldn’t have been inside that box.” Yondu half growls, looking Horuz straight in the eye. “End of it.”

“What harm was he doing?” Horuz says. “Okay, bit stupid on a ship where half the crew are trained killers, but for all the God’s sake Yondu, he’s twelve. Kid’s do stupid shit at twelve. It’s in their job description. Harris played chicken with the afterburner at that age. Never saw you hold HIM against a wall.”

“He got disciplined for that.”

“You sat Harris down, calmly explained the situation, and restricted him to his bunk for two days. Which is what you should have done with Kraglin, if there was a need at all. Instead you’ve set that boy’s progress back to the day we RESCUED HIM.”

“Not your place to tell me how to manage my crew.”

“It is when you’re being unreasonable. He was jumping out of a fucking box, Yondu. He was damaging nothing except Ravager pride. Why the overreaction?”

Yondu breaks eye contact for a second. “What if someone had locked the box?”

“It doesn’t HAVE a lock.”

The centaurian takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “Get out.” He says quietly.

“What is this about?”

Yondu’s voice doesn’t rise a decibel. “I said get out.”

But apparently Horuz’s sense of self preservation is on vacation, because he sits down. “There’s more than one box in this, ain’t there?”

Yondu looks at his hand folded in a fist on the table. “Not a story you want to hear.”

“One you need me to hear though, if you ever want to be let near that kid again.”

The Centaurian shakes his head.

“Nineteen.” He says. “That’s how old I was when the Badoon invaded my homeworld. Attack was chaos, and during it, I find this boy. Eighteen, maybe. Never asked him his age. Scared out of his wits he was, and who can blame him. No use in a fight, going to get himself killed. So I drag him into a hut, hide him in a box. ‘Stay there till I come back for you’, till I come back for you, that’s what I told you.”

“What happened?”

“I fought for that hut. Everything I had, but it weren’t enough. Badoon capture me, and they hear that kid crying in the box.” He looks down. “Damn leader of their troop laughs, and locks the box in front of me.”

“Shit.”

“Drags me away, box locked behind us. Kid trapped inside.” Yondu looks back up at Horuz. “Took me a year to escape the Badoon. First thing I do is go back to homeworld. Box is still there. Still locked. Still...”

“Did you…” It might be a full minute before Horuz speaks again. “Did you open it?”

It’s might be a minute more before Yondu, shame clear on his face, shakes his head.

Horuz is quiet as Yondu sits back in his chair, looking more vulnerable than the First Mate...who has seen the Captain at his worst...has ever seen him.

“Tell Kraglin to carry on with his game.” Yondu says after a moment. “Weren’t him in the wrong. And there’s no lock on that box.”

Horuz nods, and stands. “Doubt it will make a difference. Can’t see him climbing off Klo’s shoulders for a while, never mind going near deck two.”

“I’ll fix it.” Yondu says. “I’ll talk to him tomorrow.”

“Don’t tell him about....the reason.” Horuz says. “He’s too young.”

“I know that.”

Horuz nods, and is halfway through the door before he stops, and turns back around.

“Is that why you do it? The kids. Is that why you save them?”

“It’s why I do a lot of things.” Yondu says, throwing Horuz a nod before, returning it, the Xandarian leaves, closing the door behind him.

 

* * *

 

Yondu is still sat at the table when someone knocks tentatively at the door. He opens it to find Kraglin stood there at the entrance, dressed in his sleeping clothes and holding his toy car. Yondu decides that he is supposed to pretend not to see Klo and Harris peering around the frame of the neighbouring door.

“I...um…” Kraglin holds out the car. “I wanted to say sorry for upsetting you, and Klo says that Centaurian people say sorry by giving away something that is really important to them. So this is my gift to say sorry for hiding in the box.” He holds the car further forward.

Yondu kneels down to the child’s height, resting a finger on the car and  gently pushing it back against the boy’s chest. “Not you that needs to apologise.”

“But I upset you?”

“Weren’t your fault.” Yondu thinks for a moment, then disappears into his quarters. He returns a moment later with a ravager coat. Taking the car from Kraglin and resting it on the ground, he then encourages the young Xandarian into the coat.

“There. That’s my apology to you. First coat I got given when I joined the Ravagers. Bit big for you at the moment.”

Kraglin holds up his arms, which are barely three quarters of the way up the sleeves of the coat.

“But you keep that, and wear it when you’re big enough.”

“Thank you, Captain.” Kraglin says, throwing Yondu a smile.

Yondu works the sleeves down one of Kraglin’s arms before handing him the car. Taking it, the child runs back to Klo, who quickly lifts him back up to his shoulders before walking away, followed by Harris.

Yondu makes his way back into his quarters, a smile on his face. It’s a rag tag crew that he’s pulled together, but as far as he’s concerned, they’re the best in the galaxy.

“Klo?”

“What?” The Centaurian turns back to find Horuz stood at the door.

“He’s was just a wanderer. You find him, tell him you’re First Mate on a Ravager ship, and give him a home. Where’d he be now if not for you? Where would Nari be? Harris? Kraglin? Me?”

Yondu nods, and that’s all Horuz needs to see. He smiles, and closes the door.

 

* * *

“Nari, hail the M-Ship fleet.” Horuz says as he sits in the Captain’s chair. “Tell them Eclector is on the move.”

“Where to?”

“Centaurian Homeworld.”

Nari hesitates for only a moment, before nodding and turning back to her console.

Klo, having returned from tucking Kraglin into his bunk, leans down to talk quietly into Horuz’s ear “Is this about the thing you told me earlier?”

Horuz gives a barely perceptible nod.

“You know what we’re going to find in that box.”

“Yes.” Horuz says. “We’re going to find a young war victim who never got the decent burial he deserves.” Horuz turns to the Vanir. “You’re the closest we’ve got to an onboard priest. You ready for this?”

Klo nods, and steps back. “Yes sir.”

 

 


End file.
